18/10/21 201kmIt took us until 10.00 to get ourselves ready to go, it was then 50mins of farewells first from the WIRIB caravan park where Bev worked and we stayed. Then the town council where I worked and finally...

18/10/21 201km
It took us until 10.00 to get ourselves ready to go, it was then 50mins of farewells first from the WIRIB caravan park where Bev worked and we stayed. Then the town council where I worked and finally the medical clinic where we both worked part time. And so it was that we departed Timber Creek and headed west. First stop was Kennedy Ck then Amanbidji Rd then truck park bay, all done in too much heat too late in the day. We got to Keep River NP at 15.00, dropped our caravan off and saw Diane the head ranger to tell her what we were doing then headed to Goorrandalng campsite on the rutted road. Not surprisingly there wasn’t much happening as far as birdlife around the camp so we cowered in the shade in the 41C temp until after 17.00 when we ventured out on the walking track and got more White-quilled Rock Pigeons than ever including a brood of three juveniles one being a half sized runt, but it was able to fly. Still one of my favourite short walks. Bev found a pair of Tawny Frogmouths hiding in the shade on a low rock ledge, it probably being much cooler than the surrounding trees. Not long before dark one started up its low huwoo call. Not long after dinner it was bed time.

Tawny Frogmouth Tawny Frogmouths

19/10 32km
The body is awash with sweat, It’s dead still, I’m lying awake and staring at the roof, a rustle of the leaves brings hope, closer now I turn to face the screen as at last a breeze wafts into the camper and a momentary relief from the heat as it touches my sweat, then it’s gone and the stillness resumes, the sweat trickles run.
Added a few more birds around the camp then did the walk and got a Sandstone Shrike-thrush. Last night we’d noticed one of the campers had strewn rubbish all over the place and was playing techno music, when we got back from the walk we saw that the campsite was clean so he wasn’t such a bad egg after all. We headed up to Jenemoom walk and found no water in the swamp and none in the gully either, but still got a reasonable list. By now it was 37C and we were glad to get into the air-conditioned car and went back to Cockatoo Lagoon, notified Diane we’d returned and spent the rest of the day by the lagoon slowly adding birds. There’s still plenty of water here but there’s a lot of tension between the birds, I saw squabbling between the Plumed Whistling Ducks a few times. The Magpie Geese were also aggressive to each other a few times and a neck stretching episode between two Great Egrets may explain the elongated neck of the bird, they seemed to call a truce and fed near each other in the end. There were lots of finches, hundreds of Peaceful Doves and big numbers of many other species, this may be the only water for quite a long way at the moment. Come dark we had dinner and hit the sack. During the heat of the day the caravan fridge wouldn’t come on despite having enough power but as the heat of the day lessened when we returned from the lagoon we found it running. We’d transferred all the cold stuff to the car fridge which we found struggling, the freezer wouldn’t freeze so I turned that off and that seemed to help the fridge cool down. Fridges, they’re fantastic when they work, but juggling them in the heat is very frustrating.

Nankeen Night Heron with Plumed Whistling Ducks Black-fronted Doterrel Purple Swamphen Black-necked Stork juvenile Black-necked Stork juvenile Magpie Geese

20/10 65km
Ended up with a page full of birds for the site, packed up and headed into Kununurra. The border crossing took about 20mins and we were into Western Australia, what will become our home state. We were too early for the mechanics so we de-hitched the caravan and did our shopping then went back to Kununurra Toyota to get the car serviced. We walked down to my site at Lily Lagoon and spent the morning in the shade by the lake. We booked ourselves into the caravan park Kimberleyland Waterfront next to my site, at $48 for a powered site not good value, but we sat in the shade by the waterfront some more then went to Kimberleycrust bakery for lunch then sat in the waiting room for ages waiting for the car to be done. I had suspected that the batteries were getting low, but one had died so had to be replaced, so much easier with two batteries when one dies. We got back to the caravan park in time to see a phenomenon that most people wouldn’t notice. I spotted thousands of finches flying over the caravan, I suspected they were heading for the reeds so went to have a look, I didn’t see thousands as most were hidden but I did see lots of Chestnut-Breasted Mannikins with about 1 in 30 finches being a Yellow-rumped Mannikin, dinner and bed.

poor shot of Yellow-rumped Mannikins with Chestnut-rumped Mannikin Just some of the estimated 5000 Chestnut-breasted Mannikins

21/10 231km
Up with the sun which is very early here and went to check out the reeds, sure enough they were heaving with finches, I saw one flight take off that must have had a thousand finches in it. We left the caravan in the park and headed to Valentine Crossing which had a waterhole still with good numbers of birds using it. Middle Spring had a scungy looking pool and was pretty quiet. Black Rock Falls also had an old looking pool with not much birdlife. Filled up the tanks at Ord River Co-Op at 150.7cpl the cheapest by far in the area, picked up the caravan and headed west to Molly Spring where the falls were still operating, the birdlife wasn’t anything special but there’s great insect life here. I found a native bee nest for the first time and there were lots of butterflies, dragonflies and wasps. Lunch was taken at Wyndham Jetty which had Mangrove Gerygone and a lone Silver Gull. We unhitched the caravan needlessly to get into Three Mile Valley which was just hot and dry. We unhitched the caravan again to get into Marglu Lagoon in Parry Lagoons Nature Park, there was shallow water in the kilometre long lagoon and it had some fantastic birds in it, a lone Bar-tailed Godwit and Curlew Sandpiper, were curios, a Black-tailed Native Hen was nice, I went for a walk away from the good birdhide and got Zebra Finch and Star Finch, further away were some Australian Pratincoles and a Flock Pigeon, and then I found them, I thought the area looked prospective for them but I was so happy to find some Yellow Chats and one even posed for me. Even though the heat was wilting I persuaded Bev that it was worth her while to go see them and she found them too. On our way into the site I saw a lot of tracks heading towards the north of the billabong. It all of a sudden occurred to me that this is probably a known site for the Yellow Chat and lazy people were driving off road because they didn’t want to walk like we did. Indeed Bev said that she saw a vehicle doing just that. It seems to me incontrovertible that bird watchers should care for the environment rather than destroying it by driving over it. Sadly too many are little more than stamp collectors. Back to the caravan and to The Grotto to camp in the car park by the cliff edge and as the heat slowly seeped away we had dinner then bed.

Leaden Flycatcher Black Rock Falls at the end of the dry season Yellow-sided Two-lined Dragon Yellow-sided Two-lined Dragon Umbrella Paper wasp sp Striated Heron at Wyndham jetty Metopograpsus latifrons Curlew Sandpiper looking a bit muddy Yellow Chat Ivanhoe Causeway on the Ord River, Kununurra. Music playing is Sonnerie de Ste. Genevieve du Mont-de-Paris Marin Maraise by Jordi Savall.

22/10 309km
Up at dawn and walked down into the grotto, the pool was scungy with a small trickle coming down the side wall. There was the usual White-quilled Rock Pigeon and a few finches and other birds down the bottom. We left at 6.30 and went to Dunham rest area which had a pool in the river, but I never saw anything use it, there was however good birdlife in the area. A small area had been burnt which had finches feeding in it, but most was unburnt and I had an explosion of Brown Quails at one point. Further south on the Great Northern Hwy 120km south of Wyndham was dry and at 37C at 8.25 it was already too hot for much activity. Similarly Lissadell Rd park bay was hot and dry but I disturbed another covey of Brown Quails in the old unburnt Spear Grass. 220km south of Wyndham was also hot and dry. We dropped off the caravan in the rest area opposite the road into the Bungles and did the 53km track in. It’s a really nice drive winding through spinifex country, particularly once you get out of the station country. It’s not a road to be taken at speed, so as long as you’re not in a hurry the rough corrugated road isn’t all that bad, 4wd is needed to get through one deep crossing that even at the end of the dry was still deep. We booked into the Kurrajong camp it being the only one open and after paying $35 for the night including a $15 day fee we went to Echidna Chasm which was fantastic. I expected to see Petra at the end of it, instead there was a track closed sign due to a rock fall. An ominous breeze came chasing down the chasm and for a moment I was Indiana Jones. There was no vegetation for the last half of the walk and it was quite cool. On walking out I all of a sudden was struck by how fragrant the bush is. There must have been no smell in the depths of the chasm. We went back to the empty campground to camp, all too soon it was dark and after dinner it was bed.

The Grotto 2021 Entrance to Echidna Chasm Bungles NP Cave Duskhawker in Echidna Chasm Deep in Echidna Chasm Copeland’s Rock Frog deep in Echidna Gorge Echidna Chasm

23/10 329km
It got down to 17C overnight which was too cold for sleeping in just my sleeping sheet. Up early and over to Piccaninny and Cathedral Gorge and the beehive formations which were all wonderful. The end of Cathedral Gorge is as amazing. walked back out to the car then drove out of the park, picked up the caravan had lunch at Leycester’s rest and got the first Budgerigars, then Little Panton River which had a pool and was abuzz with birds including a Gouldian Finch. Picked up diesel at 184.0cpl at the BP down the side road and stopped at Rockhole Ck where all the birds were hiding under the bridge, every one of them, that I could find anyway. Over to Laura River where the trees have more shade so the bridge only had a few birds and I got a few more sheltering from the 42C heat in the trees probably trying to catch a bit of breeze, We stopped at Mary Pool which had pools and even though it was 17.00 and not far off dark I had a good list before dark and the usual dinner bed routine.

Coming into Picaninny beehive formations the range at Picaninny Beehive formation Picaninny Beehive formations at Picaninny Beehive formations Picaninny At the end of Cathedral Gorge Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Slater’s Ringtailed Dragon Slater’s Rintailed Dragon Gouldian Finch, leaf, Zebra Finch, Rufous-throated Honeyeater taking water at Little Panton River Grey-fronted Honeyeater sheltering under a bridge

24/10 480km
Added a few more birds in the morning including a pair of Hobby Falcons that stole the food that a Brown Goshawk had just caught. As I took off I noticed a puff of dust from one of the caravan tyres and didn’t think much of it but 40km down the road we were getting near my first survey point listening to my Spotify music when I glanced in my mirror and saw a plume of smoke emanating from the caravan wheel, the tyre had destroyed itself, so we put the spare on and stopped just up the road at park bay and got the first Variegated Fairywrens. They were doing works at the Ngumban Cliffs so the usual hiding spot for birds in the shade of the toilet block was gone and only a Magpie Lark was hanging around ever hopeful of food from the dwindling tourists. Floodway east of Fitzroy Crossing only had a few birds. At the Fitzroy River crossing there were some 8-10 year old aboriginal kids in the riverbed amongst all the rubbish strewn everywhere. When they spotted us up on the bridge they started hurling abuse and threats at us. Unless there is some sort of intervention they will no doubt end up in jail as delinquents. If anyone wants a lesson in the poverty of spirit of a lot of our First Nations peoples then Fitzroy Crossing would be a good place to start. We spent 3 months working here in 2018 and were relieved to escape the place. There’s way too much alcohol being consumed here. Tarunda Caravan park only had a few active species and disappointingly so did Geikie Gorge where we had lunch, back through town and on to Leopold Downs Rd where I might have spooked an owl but I didn’t get a good enough look at it as it escaped through the trees, I did get the species that were harassing it though. Lakeside camp had good water in it with good birdlife in and around it. I had to work hard in the 42C heat to get 3 species at Erskine Range. Camballing Rd had the first Rufous Songlark twitchytweedling away in the woodland. From there we headed into Derby and the Kimberley Entrance caravan park for the night.

Fitzroy River by the car park at Geikie Gorge Magpie-lark male Red-tailed Black Cockatoos

25/10 341km
It was a leisurely start this morning as the tyre place didn’t open until 7.00. Dropped the destroyed tyre off and went to Derby Sewerage and wetland which was good as usual with 4sp of wader and Yellow Wagtails, I had to get the scope out to ID two of the wader species. Over to Derby Jetty where I got a white phase Reef Egret, not as common as the dark phase. There was a Mangrove Golden Whistler calling nearby in the mangroves. As we were leaving I spotted an Eastern Curlew one of our fast disappearing waders due to over-development along its flyway down the Korean, Chinese and Vietnamese coast. The mudflats that it needs to restock as it migrates are being destroyed. We picked up the tyre that cost $375 for a Bridgestone Dueler. It doesn’t pay to need tyres in these remote towns. Fuel we got at the BP in the back streets at 189.9cpl. 3 cents cheaper than the main street one. Picked up some fruit and off along the Gibb River Road we went. First stop was May River which had a pool and had both White-bellied Sea Eagle and Wedge-tailed Eagle, I don’t think I’ve had them both on the same survey before. Kimberley Downs Rd had some Sitellas. Lunch was had at Lennard River which always has at least a pool of water, so we got 14sp here. At Boundary Ck I did something I don’t usually do, that is get out the recording of a bird and play it towards habitat, but I thought I heard a wren call coming from spinifex. When we played the recording of the Black Grasswren though all I got back was contact calls rather than a territorial song, so I’m not certain enough to put it in, and it’s a long way from known range. Lennard Gorge had a pool in the part that I survey and in the trees surrounding were lots of Silver-crowned Friarbirds. We’ve flushed quite a lot of Brown Quails over the last few days and there was another covey here. 240km east of Derby had a Bustard. It was sun down by the time we got to Galvan’s Gorge so Bev had to cook mostly in the dark. There was only a brief harassment by a mozzie so I braved that to enjoy the balmy evening breeze wafting through the trees with the odd flash of lightning in the distance.We had passed through a brief shower on the last leg, it had been so long since I used the windscreen wipers that I forgot where they were and turned on the indicators instead.

Eastern Reef Egret white phase Brown Honeyeater Unmistakable profile of an Eastern Curlew May River

26/10 410km
To the north of where we were there had been some rain with the road still a bit wet as we headed north. The first survey at 15km north of Mt Barnett Roadhouse had some puddles in the road and the grass was still wet, there was a Brown Quail calling, they’re everywhere! Further North at Hann River there were also puddles in the road and we got the first Striated Pardalote. Kennedy Ck still had an old pool with an attendant Black Bittern, and the spring to the east of the road was running, with Freshwater Crocodiles and possibly a Northern Snapping Turtle. Kalumburu Rd 1 was just hot and dry with some Jacky Winters fighting. Floodway 1 Kalumburu Rd had a lot of flowering eucalypts and the grass was beginning to go green from prior rains, but there was no standing water, there were lots of Banded Honeyeaters here. Lowya Ck was 100% burnt earlier in the year and still devoid of ground cover, ironically there were some Red-backed Fairywrens here foraging in the trees. We had lunch at King Edward River that had a trickle running through the causeway with some Crimson Finches. Since the Mitchell River NP was already closed for the season we decided not to brave the unserviced road in for one survey and turned around and got back to View Entire Post